On Thursday, September 29th, Senator Kelly Ayotte will introduce the Bring Our Heroes Home Alive Act of 2016. This is long awaited legislation to declassify documents relating to missing armed forces personnel from all conflicts. The Senator will be issuing a press release and would like to include brief statements of support from organizations involved in the accounting mission.

Attached is a highlights page from the bill, as well as the proposed legislation itself. Please join us in support by sending comments to the Senator’s national security legislative aide, Ryan Clark: ryan_clark@ayotte.senate.gov. (Include the subject line: Bring Our Heroes Home Alive Act – 2016.)

There is too much information on missing men from all conflicts still waiting in classified documents, including intelligence reports and prisoner-of-war debriefs. Their classification status is maintained not because of critical information relating to the nation’s security but because there has never been a strong enough call to release them. This legislation will do that.

We hope that your organization will be part of this national effort to bring new information to the fate of missing men from all conflicts and answers to their families.

A BILL To provide for the creation of the Missing
Armed Forces Personnel Records Collection at the National Archives, to require
the expeditious public transmission to the Archivist and public disclosure of
Missing Armed Forces Personnel records, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as
the ‘‘Bring Our Heroes Home Act of 2016’’.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS, DECLARATIONS, AND PURPOSES.

(a) FINDINGS AND DECLARATIONS.—Congress finds and
declares the following:

(1) A vast number of
records relating to Missing Armed Forces Personnel have not been identified,
located, or transferred to the National Archives for review and declassification.
Only in the rarest cases is there any legitimate need for continued protection
of records pertaining to Missing Armed Forces Personnel who have been missing
for decades.

(3) Mandates for declassification
set forth in multiple Executive Orders have been broadly written, loosely
interpreted, and often ignored by Federal Government officials in possession
and control of records related to Missing Armed Forces Personnel.

(4) No individual or
entity has been tasked with oversight of the identification, collection,
review, and declassification of records related to Missing Armed Forces
Personnel.

(5) The interest, desire,
workforce, and funding of Federal agencies to assemble, review, and declassify
records relating to Missing Armed Forces Personnel have been lacking.

(6) All records of the
Federal Government relating to Missing Armed Forces Personnel should be
preserved for historical and Governmental purposes.

(7) All records of the
Federal Government relating Missing Armed Forces Personnel should carry a
presumption of immediate disclosure, and all such records should be disclosed
under this Act to enable the fullest possible accounting for Missing Armed
Forces Personnel.

(8) Legislation is
necessary to create an enforceable, independent, and accountable process for
the public disclosure of records relating to Missing Armed Forces Personnel.